(1979)1.5Nathan SouthernThis utterly wretched comedy succeeds in at least one respect: it captures the most hideous overtones (aesthetic and otherwise) of the late 1970s. Moreover, the film so wallows in desperation that it first becomes exhausting, and then, eventually, suicidally depressing. Watching it, we get the very same stomach-turning sensation that we encounter from glancing at the LP cover of Cheech and Chong's 'Wedding Album' (with the Siamese twin bridegrooms and the bride with the vomit-stained brown paper bag over her head) or watching those Anatominal X-rated Yogi Bear parodies on SNL. Scavenger Hunt doesn't quite stoop to the vileness of those efforts (it is, after all, intended as 'family friendly'), but it qualifies as equally unfunny - mind-blowingly so. From then-obese Stuart Pankin's trip to the Jack-in-the-Box (shamelessly ripped off from the Animal House cafeteria scene the previous year), to Richard Mulligan's unconvincing drunk act, to a deathbed Vincent Price pushed over the proverbial cliff by his Anna Nicole-like buxom blonde mistress, nothing - not a single godforsaken miserable moment of this movie - elicits so much as one laugh. And that only makes the film's once-in-a-lifetime assemblage of late-Me Decade stars (Cloris Leachman, Tony Randall, Cleavon Little, Dick Benjamin, and many, many others) that much more unforgivable. How in the world Michael Schultz and his scripters (John Thompson, Steven Vail, and Gerry Woolery) managed to come up with such a dog, when they had such vast talent at their disposal, is completely baffling. The picture's catchy end-titles song, by Scatman Crothers (with a Johnny Rivers-esque female chorus), provides its one and only saving grace, and earns this film half a star. Otherwise, don't say you weren't warned.
A footnote for the insistent: Hal Kanter's obscure 1980 telemovie For the Love of It captures some of the same zany overtones for which Scavenger Hunt strives - and throws in some off-the-wall surrealism as well. Even it will never be mistaken for a masterpiece, but it can at least be deemed 'watchable,' which is more than can be said for this groaner.
When millionaire Vincent Price dies, he leaves a riotous will which amounts to a scavenger hunt, the winner of which receives the entire willed fortune. So 15 potential heirs are sent on a zany quest where they must outrace and outsmart one another to inherit the big bucks.
